Occasionally, land becomes damaged or degraded due to human actions, such as construction, contamination, the introduction of invasive species, and/or the like. This damage or degradation can negatively affect the health of native vegetation and/or the population of endangered species. In fact, such damage or degradation can negatively impact humans. For example, disturbing the natural habitat of the land can increase the risk of flooding, reduce access to clean water, or reduce recreational opportunities. Thus, a land owner or a government entity may attempt to restore the land to its natural habitat by reintroducing native vegetation and attempting to recreate the original native vegetation coverage.
As part of the habitat restoration process, it may be important track the health and growth of the native vegetation at a site over time. Currently, this task is performed by a biologist. For example, the biologist may visit the site, collect plant samples from a specific area or portion of the site (e.g., along a transect), analyze the samples in a lab to identify the plant species that were present (e.g., by visually inspecting the features of the collected samples and comparing those features to the features of known plant species, by running a DNA test and comparing the results to the DNA of known plant species, etc.), and estimate a status of the growth of a particular plant species in the entire site based on the analysis. However, because the biologist takes samples from just a portion of the site, the plant growth estimates are often subjective and ultimately imprecise.